Otavipithecus namibiensis, first Miocene hominoid from southern Africa.

We report here the discovery of a Miocene hominoid from Berg Aukas, Namibia, the first known from the African continent south of equatorial East Africa. This represents a major range extension of Miocene Hominoidea in Africa to latitude 20 degrees S. The holotype, a right mandibular corpus preserving the crowns of the P4-M3, partial crown and root of the P3, partial root of the canine, alveoli for all four incisors, and partial alveolus for the left canine, was found during paleontological explorations of karst-fill breccias in the Otavi region of northern Namibia. The mandible has unique characteristics that differentiate it from other middle Miocene hominoids of Africa and Eurasia and represents the only fossil evidence documenting a pre-australopithecine stage of hominoid evolution in southern Africa. Faunal analyses indicate that the breccia block containing the specimen accumulated during the latter part of the middle Miocene, about 13 +/- 1 Myr. Fauna from other breccia blocks at Berg Aukas are of diverse ages, including the earlier part of the middle Miocene, the upper Miocene, Plio-Pleistocene and Holocene.     

Sequence and analysis of chromosome 2 of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana

Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) is unique among plant model organisms in having a small genome (130-140 Mb), excellent physical and genetic maps, and little repetitive DNA. Here we report the sequence of chromosome 2 from the Columbia ecotype in two gap-free assemblies (contigs) of 3.6 and 16 megabases (Mb). The latter represents the longest published stretch of uninterrupted DNA sequence assembled from any organism to date. Chromosome 2 represents 15% of the genome and encodes 4,037 genes, 49% of which have no predicted function. Roughly 250 tandem gene duplications were found in addition to large-scale duplications of about 0.5 and 4.5 Mb between chromosomes 2 and 1 and between chromosomes 2 and 4, respectively. Sequencing of nearly 2 Mb within the genetically defined centromere revealed a low density of recognizable genes, and a high density and diverse range of vestigial and presumably inactive mobile elements. More unexpected is what appears to be a recent insertion of a continuous stretch of 75% of the mitochondrial genome into chromosome 2.     

Radiation induced avoidance behavior transfer by brain extracts of mice

Zusammenfassung In «naiven» Mäusen werden Verhaltensveränderungen nach Injektion kleiner Mengen von Gehirnmaterial aus Saccharin bevorzugenden und röntgenbestrahlten Mäusen beobachtet. Es trat Vermeidung der Saccharinlösung ein, und zwar ähnlich wie sonst in «trainierten», Saccharin bevorzugenden Tieren nach der Bestrahlung.     

Effect of aluminium phosphate gel on whole-body retention of simultaneously administered226Ra,85Sr and47Ca in mice

Résumé L'administration presque simultanée d'un gel de phosphate d'alumine et de²²⁶RaCl₂ réduit de 800 fois l'absorption intestinale du²²⁶Ra chez la souris. La charge corporelle en⁸⁵Sr et⁴⁷Ca est réduite d'environ 10 resp. 3 fois.     

Controlling the dynamics of spontaneous emission from quantum dots by photonic crystals

Control of spontaneously emitted light lies at the heart of quantum optics. It is essential for diverse applications ranging from miniature lasers and light-emitting diodes, to single-photon sources for quantum information, and to solar energy harvesting. To explore such new quantum optics applications, a suitably tailored dielectric environment is required in which the vacuum fluctuations that control spontaneous emission can be manipulated. Photonic crystals provide such an environment: they strongly modify the vacuum fluctuations, causing the decay of emitted light to be accelerated or slowed down, to reveal unusual statistics, or to be completely inhibited in the ideal case of a photonic bandgap. Here we study spontaneous emission from semiconductor quantum dots embedded in inverse opal photonic crystals. We show that the spectral distribution and time-dependent decay of light emitted from excitons confined in the quantum dots are controlled by the host photonic crystal. Modified emission is observed over large frequency bandwidths of 10%, orders of magnitude larger than reported for resonant optical microcavities. Both inhibited and enhanced decay rates are observed depending on the optical emission frequency, and they are controlled by the crystals' lattice parameter. Our experimental results provide a basis for all-solid-state dynamic control of optical quantum systems.     

High-quality electron beams from a laser wakefield accelerator using plasma-channel guiding

Laser-driven accelerators, in which particles are accelerated by the electric field of a plasma wave (the wakefield) driven by an intense laser, have demonstrated accelerating electric fields of hundreds of GV m(-1) (refs 1-3). These fields are thousands of times greater than those achievable in conventional radio-frequency accelerators, spurring interest in laser accelerators as compact next-generation sources of energetic electrons and radiation. To date, however, acceleration distances have been severely limited by the lack of a controllable method for extending the propagation distance of the focused laser pulse. The ensuing short acceleration distance results in low-energy beams with 100 per cent electron energy spread, which limits potential applications. Here we demonstrate a laser accelerator that produces electron beams with an energy spread of a few per cent, low emittance and increased energy (more than 10(9) electrons above 80 MeV). Our technique involves the use of a preformed plasma density channel to guide a relativistically intense laser, resulting in a longer propagation distance. The results open the way for compact and tunable high-brightness sources of electrons and radiation.